Email Marketing in a Difficult Economy

The economy is one everyone's mind.  How has email changed because of the economy?  Here are two telling charts.  These display what percent of email subject lines contained an offer in Q1 2008 and Q1 2009.  What a difference a year makes!

 

Email Marketers are sending more types of offers more frequently.

• Subject lines with no mention of an offer decreased by nearly 44%
• The number of subject lines including the mention of a free gift
  increased over 100%
• The mention of a percentage off in the subject line increased 20%
• The inclusion of a dollar off amount increased 52%
• 4.5% of these campaigns included a combination of offers such as
  Free Shipping plus 25% off
• Free Shipping offers increased 32% when comparing January and February, 2009 with the same time period in 2008
• The minimum spend requirement for Free Shipping appears to be decreasing many clients that offered free shipping at $150 or $200 have dropped to $100 or $150 respectively

Here are a couple creatives addressing poor economic times.